discipline posted:

Lykourgos posted:

prostitutes almost invariably plead out and/or agree to go to social programmes, and I really appreciate that.

but really what are their other options

a really awkward trial where the lawyers and judge have to talk about sex. nobody wants to see that.

Two months before the demonstration outside the Voice, feminist icon Gloria Steinem held court in the brothels of India as part of a humanitarian junket sponsored by the NoVo Foundation, one of the largest private women’s charities in the United States. NoVo’s money is Warren Buffett’s money: $1 billion, transferred by the second wealthiest American to his son Peter, who chairs the effort along with his wife, Jennifer. Steinem accompanied Peter and Jennifer Buffett on a tour of Sonagachi, Calcutta’s biggest red light district. Steinem came away from her visit with an astounding proposal: What would really benefit the women who worked there—whom she described to the Calcutta Telegraph as “prostituted,” characterizing their condition as “slavery”—would be to end sexual health services and peer education programs in brothels, programs that have been recognized by the United States Agency for International Development as best-practices HIV/AIDS interventions. Steinem described the women leading those health and education programs as “traffickers” and those who support them “the trafficking lobby.”

How have we arrived at this point, that in the name of “protecting” women, or even ensuring their “rights,” feminists are eager to take away their jobs and health care?

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120422/jsp/calcutta/story_15393912.jsp
here's steinem's own words:

It’s very hard to look at women — or men — treated as if they were objects, as if they have no feelings, no will of their own. Their phrase in many countries is “survival sex”. It’s very painful to watch. I feel guilty as an American because I know the Gates Foundation has been paying huge sums — at least $500 million so far — to AIDS control programmes in India that pay salaries to brothel owners and pimps and traffickers in Sonagachhi and Sangli to become “peer educators” and distribute condoms, though there’s no proof that women have the power to make men use condoms, and there is proof that men pay more to have sex without a condom.

stegosaurus posted:

lol thats unbelievable

im not even surprised, indias the most fucked-up corrupt place and westerners just cant empathise with that level of cynicism, which is why india keeps getting money from billionaire rubes

discipline posted:

ahahaha I love how with these condom initiatives it's always the woman's responsibility, even the campaign here in new york focuses on women

it's easier to convince people to do something by reminding them of the negative consequences for themselves, not telling them to think about the suffering of others

thirdplace posted:

in fairness any public campaign focused on increasing condom use among johns would probly be really awful

well whats obvious is that someone weighed the alternatives and concluded that charitably subsidising brothels was the only answer

discipline posted:

Ah yes, the dreamworld where men never catch STDs or get someone pregnant by not using a condom

in PIV sex, men are far less likely to catch STDs than women, and at virtually no risk of catching HIV. pregnancy can be fled in a lot of cases